Archive - Nov 2010 - Blog entry

The market crumbled today like Charles Rangel's reputation as apparently Europe went through the TSA's new back-scatter x-ray machine and was revealed to have a severely dangling Ireland.

Everyone else can eat cake ...

Something is happening. I am not saying it is a trend, but the data are suggesting some improvement in the economy. This is the first time I have said this in two years. It may just be a temporary phenomenon since there are so many headwinds against a recovery. Perhaps it is just that things aren't getting worse. But the data are important and should not be ignored.

H.R. 3808 is known as the “Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act.” It passed the House and Senate but was vetoed by the President. Well, from what I understand, further consideration of the veto message and the bill shall be heard and a vote will be made Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010 to possibly override the veto.

The heart of the matter is “Big fish eat little fish.” There’s not enough tax money to continue swelling the fortunes of the super rich while making even a pretense of saving enough to pay the pensions and related social support that North American and European populations have been promised. Something must give.

Lots of chips on this one.

It contains seven sections: Selling, Think Like an Investor, Behavioral Investing, Economics, Stock Market History, Risk and Books for the Soul. The first three sections were presented last week and the remaining four are below. I hope you enjoy it.

Despite a full-time job, frequent opinion pieces, not to mention a wife and children, Bill found time to write what I think is an essential book, The Courage to Do Nothing. Flax’s excellent book is a moral defense of markets and freedom, and if read it will greatly strengthen the arguments made by existing free-market advocates, while possibly converting more than a few skeptics.

Cisco delivered a shock to the investment world, lowering its quarterly and fiscal year sales guidance by a notable amount, causing the company’s shares to suffer a 16% drop today. However, we question whether such a drastic drop in share price was justified given the adjustment to guidance.

"The easiest way to attract a crowd is to let it be known that at a given time and a given place someone is going to attempt something that in the event of failure will mean sudden death."--Harry Houdini

Retail traders are notoriously wrong at picking market direction/tops and bottoms. Most retail traders very naturally seem to adopt a counter-trend stance and this offers very accurate signals for individuals looking to trade against this group. This daily report is designed to help traders focus their efforts on higher probability pairs.

A flurry of buyouts, headline-y good macro news (just don't read the "not so" fine print), and the Fed promising to print enough dollars to make everyone a millionaire as Bernanke mimics the First Citiwide Change Bank "volume" strategy caused investors to celebrate in the morning by doing the Dougie.

PROBLEM “The problems were lurking in the files, as long as people were paying and values went up nobody cared. Fraud that happens during boom times comes to light in the bust.” SOLUTION “If the assignment is missing, you can create it by having the old assignee reassign it to you,” 4CLOSUREFRAUD QUESTION "What if the old assignee no longer exists?"

Speaking at the Bank of England on Monday, Ros Altmann, director-general of the Saga Group, warned that historically low interest rates could lead to another financial crash that would leave pension pots “decimated”. And it's not just a UK problem...

"Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"